Vendor, emcee offer different views of festival

Saturday

Mar 31, 2012 at 11:11 AMAug 23, 2012 at 3:07 AM

Randy Worrell will deep-fry anything.

Randy Worrell will deep-fry anything.

Nutter Butters, Oreos, Snickers, Kool-Aid and more are plopped into sizzling hot grease aboard Fun Fried Foods, which returned to Maury County Park for a second year to serve hungry Mule Day festival-goers.

“I’ve got a big fryer at home, and I test things out and play around with what I find on the Internet. If you can fry it and eat it, we’ll do it,” Worrell said Friday.

A 10-year fast food veteran, Worrell has attended Mule Day since moving to Columbia four years ago. He decided to give back to the community by ditching semi-retirement and launching his mobile concession stand business.

“Mule Day is a great festival, in the top 10 I’d say,” Worrell said after giving a complimentary corn dog to a young boy, the son of the vendor stationed next to him.

But there’s one item he won’t sell — fried beer.

“You can fry it, but once you take a bite out of it, the beer just kind of goes every which way,” he said. “Then you’ve got to watch out for selling it to minors, so it’s not worth it.”

Worrell served 25 festivals or concerts across Tennessee and southern Kentucky last year, and most of his fried confections are from Columbia. He buys his cheesecake from the recently-opened Chick-fil-A and pork tenderloin from local grocers.

“Gotta help the surrounding areas,” Worrell said. “They help me, I help them.”

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Mack Landrum offered his voice to the Thursday Log Loading Contest after the event’s emcee passed away weeks before the Mule Day festival.

“(He) would say what had to be said instead of running his mouth off like I do,” Landrum said, laughing. Although he had experience announcing horse shows, the Tallassee, Ala., resident has been a spectator at Mule Day festivities since 2001.

His fondness for mules began in Panama, where he worked on the county’s namesake canal for 20 years.

“They’re the toughest critters on the planet,” Landrum said, pausing from talking into the microphone in his hand. “I took a trip one time — went way up the coast where there weren’t any roads. I was going to walk up and spend a few days camping.”

But when his knees went out, he rented a mule to carry him along the 40-mile stretch.

“Didn’t bother him a bit,” the announcer said.

His respect for the animal’s resilience stayed with him when he retired and moved to Alabama, where he enjoys raising gaited mules.